A conventional surgical scalpel typically comprises a reusable, sterilisable elongate handle or haft onto which a replaceable slotted blade is mounted. At the distal end of the handle is a tang that normally includes opposed grooves or channels to receive the blade. Generally the tang is a narrow extension of the handle. The blade has a slot extending longitudinally, which slot has a portion of sufficient width to be received over the tang and a narrower portion at its distal end whereby the edges of the slot are closely received in the opposed grooves. The blade may have a heel that is received in a recess in the handle. The term “heel” is intended to refer to the proximal portion of the blade, i.e. the end portion nearer the user's hand.
The handle is intended to be used repeatedly, but the blade is normally discarded after single use, or if the blade becomes dull or contaminated, or if a different style of blade is required. In many operations several blades are required and are typically used successively on the same handle. In order to remove the blade from the handle, the heel portion of the slotted blade must be bent out of its plane (i.e. separated or lifted off the handle), and then the blade may be moved axially along the tang so that the heel portion rides over the tang thereby releasing the tang from the slot.
Manual removal of the blade can be hazardous. During the manipulation of the blade the operator is put at risk of being cut on the sharp blade. With the ever-increasing spread of blood transmitted diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis, any accidental injury from the blade can result in infection or contamination.
Many forms of mechanical scalpel blade removers are known. Most of these require two-handed operation, or bending or twisting of the scalpel, rendering them dangerous and/or awkward to use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,908 describes a cam-operated device for removing the blade from the handle of a scalpel. Our earlier invention is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,533. The devices described in both U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,908 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,533 are advantageous as they permit a blade to be removed from the scalpel by moving the scalpel in and out of the device in a substantially linear path, in a single-handed operation. Each such scalpel blade remover allows successive scalpel blades to be removed and stored within a sharps container associated it. The devices described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,908 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,533 are specifically designed for repeated use, and the withdrawal of the scalpel handle resets the device for further use.
As mentioned above, many blades may be used in a surgical procedure and theatre protocol requires that all items used during a surgical procedure be accounted for. As the devices of U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,908 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,533 are designed for repeated use, and since they store multiple blades within a single container, they render it difficult to account accurately for all blades used during a surgical procedure. Furthermore an operating theatre is a sterile environment and prior to such a scalpel blade remover being introduced to a theatre, it must be sterilised. This is not readily possible with multiple blades being stored within a sharps container unless the container is emptied prior to each sterilisation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a scalpel blade remover that overcomes or ameliorates one or more of the disadvantages described above, or which at least provides the consumer with a useful choice.